Professor Melanie Bahlo

Professor Melanie Bahlo

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Division:

Lab focus: bioinformatics of neurogenetic and infectious diseases

Our research focuses on developing new methods to analyse complex genetic data. These are being used to discover the genetic causes of human diseases including epilepsy, ataxia and autism. We are a highly collaborative laboratory, working closely with clinician researchers to reach important clinical research outcomes for families with genetic disorders.

In recent years our research has focused on brain disorders. Our analysis of data produced by new genomic technologies is identifying genetic causes for diseases that have previously proven intractable to analysis. The software we develop is freely available to others, aiding many research fields.

Research interest

Our lab uses statistical methodology to describe and model genetic data, to make use of structure within the data. This allows the identification of genomic regions of interest that may harbor disease-causing mutations. We implement these models through software programming.

We work on many disease identification projects simultaneously, some of which can be easily solved, others taking years before a break-through is achieved. We seek to identify where new technology can be combined with our genetic insights to achieve these breakthroughs in studies where we have been unsuccessful.